Adam's RS cover
From PopEater:
After months of speculation, rumors and suggestive photos, it's finally official: 'American Idol' runner-up Adam Lambert is coming out, telling Rolling Stone magazine that he's gay and proud of it.
Even Lambert himself says that his admission probably won't come as a shocker to many who have followed his rise to fame. "I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I'm gay," he tells Rolling Stone in their exclusive reveal.
"I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It's just another part of me," Lambert says.
The 'Idol' rocker says that he was tempted immediately after the 'Idol' finale to discuss it, but he says: "I thought, 'I'm going to wait for Rolling Stone, that will be cooler,'" he says.
So why, exactly, did he save the news for a major magazine spread? "I didn't want the Clay Aiken thing and the celebrity-magazine bull----. I need to be able to explain myself in context," Lambert tells Rolling Stone.
"Control of this situation" is very important to Lambert. He feels that "everyone has an opinion of me, and I want a chance to say, ‘Well, do you want to hear how I really feel about all this?'"
During his 'Idol' run, Lambert for a long time was considered the front-runner, winning fans of all types along the way.
"I loved it this season when girls went crazy for me. As far as I'm concerned, it's all hot. Just because I'm not sticking it in there doesn't mean that I don't find it beautiful," Lambert (graphically) tells Rolling Stone.
Lambert even goes on to share his feelings toward sharing a living space with 'Idol' champion Kris Allen. He says that when the show moved them in together, "I was like, 'Oh, s--t, they put me with the cute guy.' Distracting! He's the one guy that I found attractive in the whole group on the show: nice, nonchalant, pretty and totally my type except that he has a wife. I mean, he's open-minded and liberal, but he's definitely 100 percent straight."
All of those older photos that hit the Internet purportedly showing Lambert kissing another man and dressed up in drag? Legit, Lambert says. "I've only dressed in drag three or four times and of course I took pictures, because I looked amazing but I don't tuck and I don't wear breasts, that's not me. Sucking my boy's face? Yes, that I will own," he joked.
The photos were never directly addressed by Lambert until now because he was afraid they'd "be so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing ... It shouldn't matter. (sighs) Except it does. (shaking head) It's really confusing."
In April, PopEater readers pretty much had Lambert figured out. In a poll asking "Do you think Adam Lambert is gay?" in reaction to the public buzz, 88 percent of more than 122,000 readers voted "Absolutely" while just 12 percent said "No way."
Speaking openly about this subject matter hasn't always come easy for Lambert. He says that during school, he was "so scared" of his sexuality. He never even confirmed the news to his parents, who found out in shocking fashion. Adam's father Eber caught his 13-year-old son looking at gay pornography on the family computer, and turned to his wife and said 'It's official.' Later, Lambert's mother asked if he had a girlfriend. He said no. She asked if he had a boyfriend. He said no. Then she asked if he wanted a boyfriend, to which Lambert replied "Yes, that would be nice." "Suddenly, it was like a wall dropped, and we started gabbing like crazy," Lambert says.
While Lambert is certainly a proponent of gay marriage -- which many thought his rendition of Sam Cooke's 'A Change Gonna Come' on 'Idol' was tip of the hat to -- he says he's not looking to be a spokesperson for the movement. "I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader," he says.
Through it all, Lambert says he's "finally checked in to my self-worth for the first time in my life, and the fact that it has coincided with 'Idol' is so sweet." Sure, he still has his self doubts, but, as he put it, "for the most part, when I look in the mirror now, I finally see somebody who can do something cool."
Link to RS video:
http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/player/28566086
Link to article:
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/06/09/the-new-issue-of-rolling-stone-the-liberation-of-adam-lambert/
Link to article in USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2009-06-09-lambert-rollingstone_N.htm
Link to article on MTV News:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1613535/20090609/story.jhtml